Yesterday's Hero
by LM
Summary: My origin 'fic for the Clydesdale ponies. (See, I told you I'd get around to it! ^_^) Semi-violent, nothing too specific.


Yesterday's Hero **Yesterday's Hero** by Lady Moondancer 

_All around me, voices . . . half-heard . . ._

". . . waking up now, probably be groggy for a while, mustn't . . . "

"Can he stand? Can you stand?"

_Rippling muscles . . . The power. Stronger than any magic. Great Rainbow, the _ POWER.

"No, no, best to keep still for a few minutes. You have to be careful now. Stay calm, stay in control--"

_I'm flesh and blood, unicorn, not stone. What do you think I am?_

_What did you think I was?_

"It worked! I can't believe it, it worked!" 

_It was one of the young unis who said that, I remember. The old ones just looked smug._

"What . . . happened?"

_My voice . . . deeper than it had been. My memories . . . confused . . . tangled . . . _

"How much do you remember, Thunder?"

"Thunder . . . is that . . . am I Thunder?"

_I had to ask. Great Rainbow, I had to _ask!

"The invaders . . . you remember? You volunteered to . . . help. It was a risky process, but--"

_The invaders. I can barely remember them now. They were humanoid, sort of, and they kinda. . . glittered and floated. Magic. Everything here is magic, in our kingdom._

In your kingdom.

"Thunder . . . "

_My hooves . . . so heavy . . . My colors . . . changed. My symbol . . . gone._

"If you look at the feathering on his hooves, I think you'll find it's due to--"

"--certainly more mass than before, and well-defined muscles. Just as I predicted--"

"--from grey to white, and the mane to red hair. Interesting phenomena."

_"Phenomena". Rainbow help me. _

Rainbow help them. 

No, too late to help them . . . maybe it was always too late.

"You are right to question your name, young one. 'Thunder' is gone, cast off; now let the saviour of our kingdom arise!" 

_You were always longwinded, Hypernion, but even the other unicorns rolled their eyes at that one._

I used to love irony, but that was a long time ago, I think.

"You are now . . . Hero."

_Rainbow help me . . . whoever I am. _

Hero. I am Hero. Thunder is dead.

"Is that . . . Thunder? Is that you?"

_A whirl of half-formed memories . . . but I'd know you anywhere, Iris. Always._

But you don't know me? Ah well, I've changed you see. 

But you don't see. Not yet.

"The battle awaits."

_Starshine, standing there with eyes like ice . . . He wouldn't help, you know. The bastard._

Anger, writhing within me . . . old memory, or current emotion? Can't tell anymore.

Starshine. Why didn't anyone listen to Starshine?

"There--over the hills. They come."

_Yes, they come. Came. Weaving their path on the wind, thick as . . . as ants pouring from an anthill. And behind them, golden radiance welling and pooling . . . a tidal wave of magic._

"Oh Thunder, be careful! Are you sure--"

"He'll be fine, Iris. This is what we prepared him for. This is his destiny."

_Destiny. What happens to a pony who outlives his destiny, I wonder?_

"Now just wait until they're a little closer and then try to--Hero! Hero, come back!"

_I remember the rage. Those things, trying to take over my home. Trying to steal what was mine--ours--by right. The unicorns were shouting at me to return when I charged through--crashed through--the main gates. At least I think they were . . . I remember voices, calling . . . _

But I was busy battering my way through the enemy, tearing at them with my teeth and crushing them beneath my hooves. They didn't scream. They didn't flinch. They tried to weave their magic around me, to drain me like they'd drained Moondust and Shadowstar and Nightwind. 

And they died.

Great Rainbow, but I reveled in it.

It was over so quickly . . . suddenly I was running through the field with corpses churning beneath my feet . . . 

No one left to fight. No one left to kill. But the anger burned.

"It's over, Hero."

_Starshine hovered well above the parapets and I couldn't read his expression. _

"What's the matter, Starshine? Afraid to bloody your hooves?"

_I crushed the skull of an invader with one of my own huge, feathered hooves and ground my foot back and forth, laughing like a pony gone mad. _

That's when I saw your face. 

"Iris . . . I . . . "

"We'll talk later . . . Hero."

_I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. _

But we managed for a while, didn't we? I pretended to be . . . who I had been. You called me by his name, even. We were happy, almost . . . 

Almost . . . I did_ try, I really did . . . _

"Good evening, you two. Haven't seen you in a while, Hero. You're looking beautiful tonight, Iris . . ."

"What in shades do you think you're doing, Skycap? _What do you think you're doing?_ If you ever look at her that way again--"

"What?? I--"

"Thunder! Thunder, stop, please stop!"

_Underneath the facade the rage was always there. Festering. Stewing. Boiling to the surface, sometimes. _

I fought it. I thought I was winning. You knew better, didn't you?

"Oh, Iris, he's _adorable!_ . . . No, no, little one, leave the bugs alone! Eww, icky icky! You'll get your hooves all dirty! Iris, you and Hero must be so proud. He's the spitting image of his father."

"Yes. I suppose he is the spitting image of . . . Hero."

_It wasn't his fault, Iris. I should've said something, done something. But my days twisted and writhed until I could barely remember where _I_ was, let alone the foal. Did you ever tell me where you sent him or what . . . happened to him? I can't remember._

I'm so tired . . . tired of waiting.

"Hero, I need to talk to you about a . . . problem . . ."

_Funny, pegasi didn't used to look so small. _

"What is it? Is something wrong?--Invaders!"

_Even as I looked over the turret wall, I knew that I was acting . . . wrong . . . again. Skycap looked at me so strangely . . . _

"No, it's nothing like that. It's . . . well . . . sometimes you have to forget about the past and . . . move on . . . "

_Oh, Iris . . . Why didn't you tell me yourself? Surely you owed me that much? Even me? I would've understood, I know I would have. I could never hurt you, Iris._

But it wasn't you in front of me, was it? 

Poor Skycap . . . 

"Hero, what are you--Great _Rainbow,_ what have you _done?"_

_Even now, I can't remember. Just an overwhelming, overpowering surge of fury, anger, hatred, burning around me, liquid fire tearing at my veins and then . . . then I was standing there with crimson hooves and Hypernion had this look on this face--I've never seen anything like it, I'm sure I'd remember--this look of utter horror. _

Horror. Of me. 

Me, who he had planned and plotted which such care. 

Me, who he had created. 

"No . . . no . . . impossible! There must have been a flaw in my calculations, a--"

"Calculate _this!"_

_I remember that one. I wish I could regret it. It blurrs and tangles after that . . . I am--was--hammering through the fortress, lashing out--_

"Thunder! Thunder, what have you done?? _Stay back!"_

_You shouldn't have sent Skycap. I could never hurt you. _

"Thunder . . . _why?_ Great Rainbow of Light, _why?"_

"Thunder is dead."

_I walked through the swaying gates, leaving a trail of hoofprints behind me. Not one sound except the crows and ravens._

I do have some friends still. 

And so now . . . I wait. There's a big cave carved into the side of the mountain. It's empty now; I know 'cause I looked. But it's big--did I say that already?--and there are bones scattered on the floor and furrows in the walls like something was sharpening its claws. A dragon, I think. Or a roc? Do rocs live in caves? 

I can't remember. It doesn't matter. What matters is that it's something hulking, angry, violent. I think I can hear it now, maybe . . . above the clouds, giant wings crashing. A sound like thunder.

Time to get up . . . get ready to stain these hooves again. I'm going to kill it.

And then I'm going to die, I think.

And now a black shape swooping, tearing through the clouds . . . that familiar, comforting anger boiling over, burning away my regrets.

It should be some fight. 

Rainbow help me, I'm looking forward to it.

Rainbow help me . . .


End file.
